Act 23: Ghost in the Machine
by The Admiral
Summary: I know, I know, I should have waited 'till Halloween for this one...
1. Default Chapter

I've said it before and I wish I didn't have to say it again: I DO NOT OWN BIG O OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS. I AM NOT MAKING MONEY WHEN I PUBLISH THESE STORIES. IF YOU CAME HERE LOOKING FOR A LAWSUIT, THEN BUGGER OFF!!!!!  
  
I do, however, claim the City of Angels and David as my own original ideas, so if anybody uses them without asking first, be prepared for a severe type-lashing! =(  
  
  
  
Act 23: Ghost in the Machine  
  
  
"Ah, you're here. Have a seat, both of you." Roger and Dorothy sat in the two chairs, which groaned under their respective weights. David stood from behind the desk, and walked around in front. "I assume that Angel told you about this city's past? How it was a center of culture and learning before the Event? Well, there are the ruins of a large complex not to far outside the border. We believe it was once a famous school, where students and teachers alike were kept to the highest standards." He leaned against his desk, and pressed a button on a small pad of them. A screen lowered onto a wall nearby, on which was displayed a map. "Since it was a place of learning, we imagine there to be considerable secrets to be found within. None of our people, however, go near it." He looked around, then leaned closer to them. "They say it's haunted."  
  
  
"Bah! The last ghost I ran into was just an illusion. Superstition, plain and simple." Roger stood and walked over to the map.  
  
"It may be superstition, but nobody will go near it. I figured, however, that two androids have little to fear from the dead..."  
  
"You've got that right. Let's roll, Dorothy." Roger pulled out his sunglasses and started for the door, but Dorothy remained sitting.  
  
"Are you sure it's a good idea to rush into things this way, Roger?"  
  
He paused in the doorframe. "Well, it's worked for me so far, hasn't it?" She merely raised an eyebrow. "Hey, if I hadn't 'rushed into things,' as you put it, we wouldn't have met, now, would we?"  
  
Dorothy smirked. "You have a point. We'll be back soon, David."  
  
"Excellent. I will have your car waiting at the city's edge for you, Roger."  
  
  
The Gryphon came to a halt at the ancient, rusting gates. Roger and Dorothy stepped out and approached warily.  
  
"Look...some words are formed in the arch." Dorothy pointed at the curving metal above the gate.  
  
Roger squinted, a human reflex left over from his organic body, and read what he could make out. "Ha...Har...Harvad?"  
  
"Harvard. I suppose that was someone's name. Perhaps the founder," said Dorothy as Roger stepped forward and effortlessly ripped the gate aside.  
  
"Whoa!! This is still going to take a little getting used to." He flexed his hydraulic limbs, feeling the strength at his finger-tips.  
  
"Don't get to cocky, Roger. Androids may be stronger, faster, and more capable than humans, but we are still fallible." Dorothy chided him, then turned to look beyond the gate.  
  
Crumbling, red-brick buildings lined both sides of an overgrown road. Trees grew here and there, and she felt an aura of mystery about the place. The walked in silence down the road.  
  
Roger spotted something out of the corner of his eye. He turned, as did Dorothy, and they saw a pale blue light in one of the unbroken windows of a nearby building. It faded, as if the source were moving back.  
  
"Come on!" Roger took off at a jog. Dorothy sighed, "Men," and followed him at a leisurely pace. 


	2. Part Two

I've said it before and I wish I didn't have to say it again: I DO NOT OWN BIG O OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS. I AM NOT MAKING MONEY WHEN I PUBLISH THESE STORIES. IF YOU CAME HERE LOOKING FOR A LAWSUIT, THEN BUGGER OFF!!!!!  
  
  
  
Dorothy tracked Roger up to the room he had seen the light in. The entire building appeared to have once been a library. Roger was poking around, looking for anything that could have caused the light.  
  
Dorothy sighed again at his behavior, then began pacing the lines of shelves. Hundreds of books, their covers and names faded, lined them. She pulled one book from the shelf, and opened it. A plume of dust spewed forth, causing her to blink for some reason. The writing, when she could see it, was faded and barely legible. She turned a few pages, but the rest of the text was the same. She was putting the book back when she heard a creak behind her.  
  
"Roger?" Dorothy turned, but there was nothing there. She faced forward again and looked straight into a pair of electric blue eyes. Roger heared her scream on the far side of the library, and rushed to the source.  
  
Dorothy was hastily retreating from the thing, but it advanced faster. She turned to flee, but strong arms reached out and grabbed her neck. The grip was powerful, so much so that she could not break free. Dorothy was lifted into the air. Then, she heard Roger yelling incoherently, and she was dropped. Her attacker spun to face Roger, just in time to take his foot full in the face. It flew over Dorothy, who was now lying on the floor, and landed in a shower of sparks farther down the aisle. Roger was instantly over her.  
  
"I'm alright. Just a little...um..."  
  
"I think it's called fear, Dorothy. You, the superior android, were scared."  
  
She glared at him. "So what if I was?" He helped her to stand. "What is it? Or rather, what was it?"  
  
Roger stepped past her and turned the inert form over, onto it's back. He withdrew slightly in shock. "It's...an android...but the like of which I've never seen."  
  
The android was in tattered rags, though now they could be made out as a faded uniform in sky blue. The machine itself was harsh and undisguised, the metal skeleton showing wherever the cloth had parted. Impact with Roger's foot had partially crushed the head.  
  
"I suppose they must have used it as a librarian here...forty years ago. But then why did it attack us? Could it have gone mad in that time? Can androids go mad at all?" Dorothy looked at Roger, puzzled.  
  
"I don't know, Dorothy, but--look there!" She turned in the direction he pointed, and saw a pale blue light shining through the shelves. It was moving to the exit. Once again Roger leapt to his feet and gave pursuit. Once again, Dorothy followed at her own pace. 


	3. Part Three

I've said it before and I wish I didn't have to say it again: I DO NOT OWN BIG O OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS. I AM NOT MAKING MONEY WHEN I PUBLISH THESE STORIES. IF YOU CAME HERE LOOKING FOR A LAWSUIT, THEN BUGGER OFF!!!!!  
  
  
Roger was looking at a book when Dorothy found him. "I found this on the front desk. It wasn't here when we came in."  
  
She looked at him a moment, then reached down and tilted the book up so she could read the cover. One word, in golden letters, adorned the cover. 'Avalon,' she read. No other markings of any kind were to be found. "Roger, I want to leave. This place is...disturbing me."  
  
He looked up from the book, smirking. "I understand how it can give you the creeps. Still," he looked around at the cobweb-laden room, "David was right about this place. So many memories..."  
  
"So many ghosts." Dorothy added. Roger looked at her.  
  
"Don't tell me you've started believing in ghosts, now, Ms. Perfect Android."  
  
She raised both eyebrows. "Let's just say that some memories are powerful enough to leave physical reminders." She looked back at the ruined android librarian. "I would prefer to leave such memories alone."  
  
"Fine, fine, we can leave now if you want."  
  
  
They were walking back to the car when Roger noticed yet another light out of the corner of his eye. "Not again--" This light, however, did not fade from the window as the last one. It stayed there, a bright orange-red, pulsing with anger and hatred, as Dorothy saw it. Then, it faded to the side, and re-appeared in the next window down, as if the source were moving down a passage. They walked parallel with it, but then it faded behind the wall and did not appear in the next window.  
  
Roger and Dorothy stood, perplexed. The looked at each other, then back to the building.  
  
The light came back, glowing now from every window and becoming brighter. The ground began to rumble beneath their feet.  
  
"Dorothy...I think we might want to start running."  
  
"I think you're right."  
  
The two of them turned and ran full out for the Gryphon, hundreds of yards away, beyond the gate. Behind them, the glow brightened to a blinding level, and every surviving window shattered. A bizzare form began to tear the building apart from the inside. Roger and Dorothy turned back just long enough to see a huge, eight-legged, mechanical monstrosity break free of the crumbling structure. It turned one bottomless eye at them, glowing with the same malevolent light. Then, lumbering hundreds of feet in a stride, it came after them.  
  
"GO, GO!!" If at all possible, they ran faster. They were just approaching the gates when they slammed shut, burning with that evil light. The two androids made a hard turn, down another path, but the spider-robot leapt ahead of them, bringing its eye down to their level. Dorothy screamed. Roger threw the book at the eye. It bounced off, and the thing took no notice.  
  
Then, the pavement between them and the monstrosity cracked, beams of the blue light they had first seen shining through. A fist cracked first and slammed into the eye in a punishing uppercut. The spider-robot fell backwards onto its back. Roger and Dorothy backed up as a proto-deuce, for all appearences identical to the one Roger had fought in the Catacombs, emerged from the ground. Its eyes glowed with an unearthly blue light, the very opposite of the one red-eyed monster that pursued them.  
  
The spider righted itself, took the measure of the newcomer, and launched itself at the proto-deuce's throat. The other robot grabbed the two foremost legs and tore one off. The spider, however, was undaunted, and held the proto-deuce's legs in place with two lower limbs. It then began raking across the unarmored chest plating with razor claws, sending sparks flying high into the air. Roger and Dorothy had moved back a respectable distance to watch the titans battle.  
  
The Spider had the Proto-deuce pinned, and was reaching down with one claw to the head, when the blue light suddenly lanced out and struck the spider in its one unblinking eye. The spider shuddered, lurched back, and the red light flowed from it like a gas. Two halos of red and blue twisted in the sky, as the robots sagged and collapsed, their power sapped. The red light flared brighter, then the blue, and the blue light overcame the red. There was a flash of purest white that blinded Roger and Dorothy momentarily. When they looked back, the sky was dark. The two huge robots, spider and proto-deuce, looked as old and abandoned as the rest of the school, lifeless.  
  
  
The Gryphon sped back to the City of Angels as fast as it could. Dorothy glanced out the rear window, and thought she saw a blue light between the trees. She blinked, and when she looked again, it was gone. She turned to the driver.  
  
"So, Roger, do you still not believe in ghosts?" She raised an eyebrow.  
  
He glanced at her. "I'm not quite sure what to believe in, now. But--oh, shoot!" He suddenly fumbled around the front seat, looking for something.  
  
"What is it? What's wrong?" Dorothy asked, leaning over to see if she could spot what had him troubled.  
  
"I dropped that book we found back there! Hang on." He spun the car around haphazardly, and was about to shift into a higher gear when Dorothy put her hand on his.  
  
"Forget it, Roger. We can always come back later." She looked out through the dark, silent woods. "For now, let's just go home."  
  
Roger followed her gaze, to the faintest blue glow visible between the trees.  
  
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Some memories should be left alone..."  
  
The Gryphon turned, and headed back towards the city.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Sorry about taking so long on this one, I had a lot of stuff to do over the last few days! To Piano_Cello_Conducting: No, I am most certainly NOT limiting myself to 13 episodes. The story I have to tell is a heck of a lot longer than that, and goes back 30 years BEFORE the Event! But, as with all good things, you'll have to wait!! =) 


End file.
